Free speech....

[seniorjudge]

What is the name of your state? Louisiana

[url]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20835952/[/url]

Well, that sure makes me proud to be an American!

[moburkes]

Sometimes, people can be idiots. The cops reacted WAY to harshly, in my opinion.

[tranquility]

This has been all over the internet today. When I was reading it on a blog, the poster wrote the student ran into the auditorium and came up to the mike while being chased or followed by two police officers. He didn't have any "allotted" time as the article states.

I don't know what happened to start the whole thing as the clips I've seen only start when the student starts yelling. I don't know if the police should have stopped him in the first place.

However, once the police made the attempt to stop him, he continued on his tirade and clearly failed to follow their orders. The student overreacted, not the police. Should the police have stepped in? I'll wait for the facts to come out to decide. Should the student have cooperated with the police once they made the decision to stop him? Yes. That's the deal. If they're doing wrong, there are other avenues to explore to deal with the situation rather than physically resisting while screaming for the crowd to help him.

I have as much distrust of the police as the vast majority of the forum. But, they have a job to do. A job which seemed to have been done professionally in this instance. We'll see. In the clips I've seen it seems he's still resisting when tasered. It's not entirely clear and there was enough officers to use other methods to control him, but which is the kinder, gentler option. A taser burst, or six beefy cops jumping on you and bending your arms back to be handcuffed? I don't think I'd like either one of them, but bet the risk of injury to the suspect is less with the taser and the risk to the other officers far less with the taser.

[You Are Guilty]

You mean it's illegal to taser morons?

Originally Posted by tranquility

I have as much distrust of the police as the vast majority of the forum.

With all due respect, I thought you were a police officer, no?

[tranquility]

With all due respect, I thought you were a police officer, no?

Yes, in the past tense. Which is why when some who are in the current tense tell us the the convient lies they do, I call them on it. There is certainly a different perspecitve on things when you've been there, no doubt. I wasn't there long enough to speak with the authority of someone like Carl, but I do know the way things work and the games they play.

[mlane58]

I saw the complete video on youtube and there was another video after the taser incident where he was downstairs with the cops and he contiued to be rude and obnoxious. Haing been a former cop as well, I didn't see the need for the taser as there was plenty of police personnel to handcuff him and haul him away.

[tranquility]

It was a very long time since I was a cop. The only tasers we had were carried by supervisors in a special kit they had in their car. I have no direct experience with them so I did a quick search on the internet for use of force guidelines for the taser. Unless I'm missing something, all the guidelines I saw would place the student's behavior well within those guidelines allowing for the deployment of cartridges. (As opposed to a touching of probes to the suspect which some departments feel is a lesser level of force.)

What was the level of the student's behavior? What would a reasonable officer do? From an FBI law enforcement bulletin:

In the Orange County Sheriff's Office (OCSO), the rise in the application of the Taser has been dramatic. Since its implementation in 2000, it has become the agency's most frequently used less lethal weapon. For example, chemical agents, physical force, and impact weapons accounted for less than 13 percent of the weapons used in 2003, while Taser use rose to almost 78 percent. This is important to note because the other less lethal tools were available, yet officers chose the Taser. Although no current studies exist that explain this shift, it seems that officers may have perceived the Taser as more effective and less likely to cause injury. (22) An analysis by OCSO reported a reduction of 50 percent in officer injuries, as well as 23 incidents where officers did not have to use deadly force to bring a confrontational situation to a peaceful resolution.OCSO policy allows Taser use at a level three (passive physical) resistance, such as when a subject refuses to comply with a verbal command. However, the agency noted only a small number of deployments at this level. This begs the question: Is the Taser an appropriate response to a level three threat? (23)

The majority (69 percent) of OCSO Taser deployments occurred in response to level four (active physical) resistance. This suggested that officers might not have believed that the Taser was an appropriate response to level three (passive physical) resistance, but, instead, most advisable in situations involving level four (active physical) resistance.

Info edit:
As I continue to look through use of force guidelines and reports, I'm starting to find some older ones recommending Taser be used in deadly force situations alone. This is clearly in the minority, but I can no longer say "all" the guidelines.